News stories from Saturday February 12, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Large sections of Clifford Irving's book on Howard Hughes were found to be almost exactly like materials included in a manuscript by Bob Thomas based on the recollections of Noah Dietrich, a former Hughes executive. A similar comparison of the two manuscripts was thought to be the basis of a Time magazine story alleging to show that the Irving book was a hoax. Time won permission from an appeals court to publish excerpts from the Irving manuscript to make its point. [New York Times]
- Donald Rumsfeld, director of the Cost of Living Council, disclosed that the administration was thinking of easing quota restrictions on imported meat as a means of slowing down the rising cost of domestic meat. Mr. Rumsfeld declined to discuss the possibility of placing raw agricultural products under economic controls. [New York Times]
- British companies, moving to comply with government orders for a three-day week to conserve electricity, laid off thousands of workers. Some companies decided to cease production for the duration of the power crisis, caused by a 34-day strike by coal miners. Brief blackouts continued on a rotating basis across the country. [New York Times]
- American planes intensely bombed enemy base areas along the Laos-South Vietnamese border for a fourth consecutive day today, and the United States command reported the heaviest American air raids inside South Vietnam in two years. An American military source said privately that the intensive bombing would continue at least until President Nixon left for China Thursday. [New York Times]
- Sources closely associated with the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse said the conservatively oriented body would unanimously recommend that all criminal penalties for the private use and possession of marijuana be eliminated. But a majority of the commission's members will still recommend criminal penalties for growing the drug, transporting it, giving it to friends or smoking it in public. The commission concluded that the drug is not very harmful and does not lead to harder drugs such as heroin or to crime. [New York Times]
- The White House announced the names of 13 persons as the President's official party for the China trip. Included are Secretary of State William Rogers; Henry Kissinger, the President's national security adviser; H.R. Haldeman of the White House staff, and Ron Ziegler, Mr. Nixon's press secretary. [New York Times]